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04 Mar 2015 7:34:01am

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Newt Gingrich has a fully qualified Ph.D. in history as well. Does that make him a historian? Absolutely not...and it clearly shows every time he pontificates on historical issues. He's a politician. That's the career he chose over history.

Aslan isn't a historian or a religious studies scholar. He's a professor of creative writing. He's certainly a half a dozen steps closer to being a historian than Gingrich, that much is clear. But he's definitely not arrived. Even with his degrees, he's still not a "historian of religion" in the UofC sense. Just like Gingrich, he chose a different path. He's a writer--a creative one.

Sure, John has a few ad hominem's in here, but he has plenty of facts, too. And those facts are clear evidence of Aslan's (inadequate) credentials. There are numerous= of NT and Roman period scholars who would never dare to attempt a work on the historical Jesus, because as close as their own specialization is to the subject, they know that they're not qualified. And if they're not qualified, neither is Aslan. Despite the size and interdisciplinary nature of the field of religious studies, they know that they're still not qualified.

If you think learning Greek and getting a survey of Bible and Church history in an MA degree is sufficient qualification. An MA in Theological Studies (his Harvard degree) is nothing. Religious Studies is a interdisciplinary field. Historical Jesus studies as a subset is a whole other ballgame.

This isn't an issue of fabricated credentials, its an issue of understanding the significance of his credentials.